For the educator who works with adult learners in higher education or in professional development, finding specific research related to TPACK is a little difficult. The current research is focused on how TPACK is applied in K-12 settings and not with adult learners. So, the information related on this particular EDT 514 wiki subpage is based more on the experiences of those of us in this educational setting.
Using computer/internet technology with adult learners
Being non-digital natives, adult learners come with preconceptions and misconceptions related to technology use. While some are comfortable in the digital world, many are unfamiliar with it and afraid of "breaking something" by working with computers and the internet. Taking this history into account is essential for the instructor of adult learners when developing a learning environment.
In the late 1990s, there was a lot of discussion about the so-called “digital divide” between those that had access to technology, and those that did not. While more affluent people still have greater access, technology has become cheaper and more accessible to everyone (Day, Janus, & Davis, 2005). More and more families own a computer that has access to the internet. Over 62% of U.S. households own a computer, and 55% of U.S. households have home access to the internet (Day et al., 2005). Mere access to technology however does not make one able to use it. As the rise of the internet has brought a tremendous surge in the availability of information, pressure on adults to learn and adapt to new technology for work and pleasure has increased. The popularity of distance-learning and computer-based training for both formal and informal learning has made it more and more important that adults be comfortable with using computers to learn for both work and personal enrichment. However, many adult learners have anxiety, resistance and poor attitudes about computers, which can make even the best computer-based instruction fail if the needs of these learners are not identified and addressed.
While TPACK-specific research is scarce for adult learners, articles do focus on pedagogical knowledge techniques for instructors of adult learners. Neil Selwyn's 1997 article, "Teaching information technology to the 'computer shy': a theoretical perspective on a practical problem" explores a "computer-phobia" and the factors that make some adult learners more "computer shy" than others. Selwyn goes on to present a framework for teaching the "computer shy" that includes confronting the students preconceptions, focusing the content of IT learning toward the user, and tailoring the learning environment to the students' motivations.
TPCK in Action with Adult Learners
We visit the home of Lisa Siri Valtersson in Sweden. A former music teacher, she now works primarily with adults, 80% of whom are immigrants.
From her home, Lisa communicates with educators, students, and others in several different countries, including mainland China. Here, we see her meeting
with Susan, a Canadian now living in Germany, via the widely used technology of Skype.
She says that as a Swede she has had her own cultural way of looking at life, perhaps a uniquely Scandinavian world view; but when speaking to a colleague or student in China (for example) she realizes that there is quite a different way to see the world.
This video is from the YouTube channel of Linköping University at Valla, and Norrköping, Sweden.
Title: Adult Learning and Global Change at Linköping University
Adult Learners Adapting Updating Knowledge and Skills
This video begins with the camera panning across the desks of a modern European classroom. We see two state-of-the-art teleconference video monitors equipped with wide-angle cameras complementing the two classroom microphones through which students interact in real-time with the remote facilitator, apparently via a high bandwidth internet connection.
After pointing out the continued importance of preparing younger generations with the needed knowledge and skills for today's knowledge-based economy, the narrator segues into commentary on the concomitant value of lifelong learning for the purpose of updating one's skills to better adapt to changes in society and the labor market. The camera continues to pan, finally revealing an audience of mature, middle-aged adult learners engaged in the process of doing just that. "It's never too late to learn."
Today, society is becoming increasingly dependent on all forms of technology for daily functioning. The number of telephone area codes is exploding as the use of wireless phone communications more than doubles the demand for telephone numbers. Car manufacturers are designing short-range wireless network systems that would allow impact and brake sensors to transmit that information to cars in the immediate area, alerting the driver to potential traffic jams and other problems ahead. Cities are putting up free wireless zones for access to the internet, and just about every coffee shop or airport these days has free wireless computer access. You can even make telephone calls overseas via computer for a fraction of the cost of using a traditional telephone. There is little doubt that technology hardware is advancing at a mercurial pace, but are the users of technology able to keep up?
Working with Adult Learners
Pikes 5 Laws for Adult Learning
Law 1: Adults are Babies with Big Bodies Recall the kinds of learning activities we did as small children-coloring, drawing, finger-painting.all hands-on activities. Children with very little experience learn through experience. As adults, we bring a lot of experience to our training programs. We want to acknowledge, honor and celebrate that experience. If, as children with very little experience, we could discover and learn, how much more as adults can we discover and learn.
Law 2: People Don't Argue with Their Own Data If I say something in a training session, you might believe that I'm convinced about its truth-but just because I said it, doesn't mean you believe it. However, if you say it, you believe it. Having groups in my training sessions create their own lists, such as characteristics of effective leaders, means they've compiled their own data-things they believe to be factual. And they oftentimes cover about 80 percent of what I was going to say, leaving me only 20 percent to fill in. I find the group much more willing to accept my suggestions for that 20 percent than if I try to present them all.
Law 3: Learning is Directly Proportional to the Amount of Fun You Have The sheer joy of learning can come from involvement and participation. Few of us have the entertainment capacity of Bob Hope or Tim Allen and the ability to keep our audience riveted for hours. But we, as trainers, don't have to! We can use the energy, involvement and participation of our audience to put into their personal learning experiences the excitement they vicariously get from some of their entertainment activities. Humor can aid enormously in reducing stress and anxiety, especially when it comes to learning. And a more relaxed atmosphere means more openness to learning.
Law 4: Learning has not Taken Place Until Behavior has Changed In training, it's not what you know-it's what you do with what you know that counts. That's why skill practice is so important in our training sessions. If we want people to do things differently, we must provide them with many opportunities to be comfortable accepting new ideas in a non-threatening environment. C.S. Lewis said, "A man with experience is never at the mercy of a man with an argument." Give people successful experiences in using information and techniques in the classroom so we increase the likelihood of on-the-job application.
Law 5: Fu Yu, WuYu, Wzu Tu Yu Roughly translated, this means Momma's having it, and Papa's having it, ain't like baby having it. If I can do something from my seminar, so what? If you can do something from one of my seminars, so what? It's when you can successfully transfer that learning to someone else (or Baby), that I as a trainer know I've done my job. It's one confirmation of your competence-when you can pass on what you know to someone else.
Today we desperately need to update our approaches to learning to meet the demands of our high metabolism culture. Training for the Learning Age is characterized by total learning involvement, genuine collaboration, variety and diversity in learning methods, internal (rather than merely external) motivation, sense of joy and excitement in learning, and a more thorough integration of learning into the whole organizational life. The reason? In more cases than not, learning is no longer preparation for the job, it is the job.
Designers (teachers, trainers, educators) of adult learning need to understand the needs of adult learners, their motivations, expectations, and experience level. Creating information that taps into the strengths of an adults’ experience and ensuring that clearly defined goals and expectations are laid out beforehand will help ensure higher participation and follow through in online courses. Adult learners enjoy taking on the responsibility for their own learning, and when properly guided and prepared for a learning experience they are quite capable of achieving a high level of competency. Instructional designers are looking more and more into how to best create formal and informal learning opportunities for adult learners so that they can gain the skills necessary to become lifelong learners.
Dr. Malcolm S. Knowles
Malcolm Knowles is credited as the father of modern adult education.
Contributions
Upon graduation from Harvard, began work with the National Youth Administration during the New Deal era
Director of Adult Education at the Boston YMCA
Executive director of the Adult Education Association of the USA
Appointed to faculty of Boston University as an Associate Professor of adult education
Malcolm Knowles on Andragogy
For Dr. Knowles, andragogy addresses five distinct characteristics of adult learners that distinguish them from children:
1. Self-concept - As a person matures his self concept moves from one of being a dependent personality toward one of being a self-directed human being 2. Experience - As a person matures he accumulates a growing reservoir of experience that becomes an increasing resource for learning. 3. Readiness - As a person matures his readiness to learn becomes oriented increasingly to the developmental tasks of his social roles. 4. Orientation - As a person matures his time perspective changes from one of postponed application of knowledge to immediacy of application, and accordingly his orientation toward learning shifts from one of subject- centeredness to one of problem centredness. 5. Motivation - As a person matures the motivation to learn is internal
Of his tenure as Director of Adult Education at the YMCA:
"...a very rich experience.It provided me with a sort of laboratory...for testing out ideas that had been generating since my reading and my experience with the national youth Administration. I didn't have the freedom to experiment with the National Youth Administration that the YMCA provided. So I did an awful lot of experimenting, and many of the ideas that later evolved as part of a comprehensive theory of adult learning had their genesis in that little laboratory."
Sources
Day, J., Janus, A., Davis, J. (2005). Computer and internet use in the united states: 2003. Washington D.C.: US Census Bureau.
Knowles, Malcolm S., Ph.D.;Swanson, Richard A., Ph.D.;Holton, Elwood F. III, Ed.D. (2011), The Adult Learner, Seventh Edition: The definitive classic in adult education and human resource development.
Neil Selwyn (1997): Teaching information technology to the ‘computer shy’: a theoretical perspective on a practical problem, Journal of Vocational
Smith, M. K. (2002) 'Malcolm Knowles, Informal Adult Education, Self-direction and Andragogy', the encyclopedia of informal education, www.infed.org/thinkers/et-knowl.htm.
Table of Contents
TPACK with Adult Learners
TPACK in adult learning?
For the educator who works with adult learners in higher education or in professional development, finding specific research related to TPACK is a little difficult. The current research is focused on how TPACK is applied in K-12 settings and not with adult learners. So, the information related on this particular EDT 514 wiki subpage is based more on the experiences of those of us in this educational setting.Using computer/internet technology with adult learners
Being non-digital natives, adult learners come with preconceptions and misconceptions related to technology use. While some are comfortable in the digital world, many are unfamiliar with it and afraid of "breaking something" by working with computers and the internet. Taking this history into account is essential for the instructor of adult learners when developing a learning environment.In the late 1990s, there was a lot of discussion about the so-called “digital divide” between those that had access to technology, and those that did not. While more affluent people still have greater access, technology has become cheaper and more accessible to everyone (Day, Janus, & Davis, 2005). More and more families own a computer that has access to the internet. Over 62% of U.S. households own a computer, and 55% of U.S. households have home access to the internet (Day et al., 2005). Mere access to technology however does not make one able to use it. As the rise of the internet has brought a tremendous surge in the availability of information, pressure on adults to learn and adapt to new technology for work and pleasure has increased. The popularity of distance-learning and computer-based training for both formal and informal learning has made it more and more important that adults be comfortable with using computers to learn for both work and personal enrichment. However, many adult learners have anxiety, resistance and poor attitudes about computers, which can make even the best computer-based instruction fail if the needs of these learners are not identified and addressed.
While TPACK-specific research is scarce for adult learners, articles do focus on pedagogical knowledge techniques for instructors of adult learners. Neil Selwyn's 1997 article, "Teaching information technology to the 'computer shy': a theoretical perspective on a practical problem" explores a "computer-phobia" and the factors that make some adult learners more "computer shy" than others. Selwyn goes on to present a framework for teaching the "computer shy" that includes confronting the students preconceptions, focusing the content of IT learning toward the user, and tailoring the learning environment to the students' motivations.
TPCK in Action with Adult Learners
We visit the home of Lisa Siri Valtersson in Sweden. A former music teacher, she now works primarily with adults, 80% of whom are immigrants.From her home, Lisa communicates with educators, students, and others in several different countries, including mainland China. Here, we see her meeting
with Susan, a Canadian now living in Germany, via the widely used technology of Skype.
She says that as a Swede she has had her own cultural way of looking at life, perhaps a uniquely Scandinavian world view; but when speaking to a colleague or student in China (for example) she realizes that there is quite a different way to see the world.
This video is from the YouTube channel of Linköping University at Valla, and Norrköping, Sweden.
Title: Adult Learning and Global Change at Linköping University
Adult Learners Adapting Updating Knowledge and Skills
This video begins with the camera panning across the desks of a modern European classroom. We see two state-of-the-art teleconference video monitors equipped with wide-angle cameras complementing the two classroom microphones through which students interact in real-time with the remote facilitator, apparently via a high bandwidth internet connection.After pointing out the continued importance of preparing younger generations with the needed knowledge and skills for today's knowledge-based economy, the narrator segues into commentary on the concomitant value of lifelong learning for the purpose of updating one's skills to better adapt to changes in society and the labor market. The camera continues to pan, finally revealing an audience of mature, middle-aged adult learners engaged in the process of doing just that. "It's never too late to learn."
Produced by the European Commission, Education, Audiovisual & Culture Executive Agency
http://eacea.ec.europa.eu/llp/grundtvig/grundtvig_en.php
Technology Today
Today, society is becoming increasingly dependent on all forms of technology for daily functioning. The number of telephone area codes is exploding as the use of wireless phone communications more than doubles the demand for telephone numbers. Car manufacturers are designing short-range wireless network systems that would allow impact and brake sensors to transmit that information to cars in the immediate area, alerting the driver to potential traffic jams and other problems ahead. Cities are putting up free wireless zones for access to the internet, and just about every coffee shop or airport these days has free wireless computer access. You can even make telephone calls overseas via computer for a fraction of the cost of using a traditional telephone. There is little doubt that technology hardware is advancing at a mercurial pace, but are the users of technology able to keep up?
Working with Adult Learners
Pikes 5 Laws for Adult Learning
Law 1: Adults are Babies with Big BodiesRecall the kinds of learning activities we did as small children-coloring, drawing, finger-painting.all hands-on activities. Children with very little experience learn through experience. As adults, we bring a lot of experience to our training programs. We want to acknowledge, honor and celebrate that experience. If, as children with very little experience, we could discover and learn, how much more as adults can we discover and learn.
Law 2: People Don't Argue with Their Own Data
If I say something in a training session, you might believe that I'm convinced about its truth-but just because I said it, doesn't mean you believe it. However, if you say it, you believe it. Having groups in my training sessions create their own lists, such as characteristics of effective leaders, means they've compiled their own data-things they believe to be factual. And they oftentimes cover about 80 percent of what I was going to say, leaving me only 20 percent to fill in. I find the group much more willing to accept my suggestions for that 20 percent than if I try to present them all.
Law 3: Learning is Directly Proportional to the Amount of Fun You Have
The sheer joy of learning can come from involvement and participation. Few of us have the entertainment capacity of Bob Hope or Tim Allen and the ability to keep our audience riveted for hours. But we, as trainers, don't have to! We can use the energy, involvement and participation of our audience to put into their personal learning experiences the excitement they vicariously get from some of their entertainment activities. Humor can aid enormously in reducing stress and anxiety, especially when it comes to learning. And a more relaxed atmosphere means more openness to learning.
Law 4: Learning has not Taken Place Until Behavior has Changed
In training, it's not what you know-it's what you do with what you know that counts. That's why skill practice is so important in our training sessions. If we want people to do things differently, we must provide them with many opportunities to be comfortable accepting new ideas in a non-threatening environment. C.S. Lewis said, "A man with experience is never at the mercy of a man with an argument." Give people successful experiences in using information and techniques in the classroom so we increase the likelihood of on-the-job application.
Law 5: Fu Yu, WuYu, Wzu Tu Yu
Roughly translated, this means Momma's having it, and Papa's having it, ain't like baby having it. If I can do something from my seminar, so what? If you can do something from one of my seminars, so what? It's when you can successfully transfer that learning to someone else (or Baby), that I as a trainer know I've done my job. It's one confirmation of your competence-when you can pass on what you know to someone else.
SOURCE: http://www.bobpikegroup.com/apps/articles/web/articleid/23213/columnid//default.asp
Designing Adult Learning
Today we desperately need to update our approaches to learning to meet the demands of our high metabolism culture. Training for the Learning Age is characterized by total learning involvement, genuine collaboration, variety and diversity in learning methods, internal (rather than merely external) motivation, sense of joy and excitement in learning, and a more thorough integration of learning into the whole organizational life. The reason? In more cases than not, learning is no longer preparation for the job, it is the job.Designers (teachers, trainers, educators) of adult learning need to understand the needs of adult learners, their motivations, expectations, and experience level. Creating information that taps into the strengths of an adults’ experience and ensuring that clearly defined goals and expectations are laid out beforehand will help ensure higher participation and follow through in online courses. Adult learners enjoy taking on the responsibility for their own learning, and when properly guided and prepared for a learning experience they are quite capable of achieving a high level of competency. Instructional designers are looking more and more into how to best create formal and informal learning opportunities for adult learners so that they can gain the skills necessary to become lifelong learners.
Dr. Malcolm S. Knowles
Malcolm Knowles is credited as the father of modern adult education.
Contributions
Malcolm Knowles on Andragogy
For Dr. Knowles, andragogy addresses five distinct characteristics of adult learners that distinguish them from children:
1. Self-concept - As a person matures his self concept moves from one of being a dependent personality toward one of being a self-directed human being
2. Experience - As a person matures he accumulates a growing reservoir of experience that becomes an increasing resource for learning.
3. Readiness - As a person matures his readiness to learn becomes oriented increasingly to the developmental tasks of his social roles.
4. Orientation - As a person matures his time perspective changes from one of postponed application of knowledge to immediacy of application,
and accordingly his orientation toward learning shifts from one of subject- centeredness to one of problem centredness.
5. Motivation - As a person matures the motivation to learn is internal
Of his tenure as Director of Adult Education at the YMCA:
"...a very rich experience.It provided me with a sort of laboratory...for testing out ideas that had been generating since my reading and my experience with the national youth Administration. I didn't have the freedom to experiment with the National Youth Administration that the YMCA provided. So I did an awful lot of experimenting, and many of the ideas that later evolved as part of a comprehensive theory of adult learning had their genesis in that little laboratory."
Sources
Day, J., Janus, A., Davis, J. (2005). Computer and internet use in the united states: 2003. Washington D.C.: US Census Bureau.
Knowles, Malcolm S., Ph.D.;Swanson, Richard A., Ph.D.;Holton, Elwood F. III, Ed.D. (2011), The Adult Learner, Seventh Edition: The definitive classic in adult education and human resource development.
Neil Selwyn (1997): Teaching information technology to the ‘computer shy’: a theoretical perspective on a practical problem, Journal of Vocational
Smith, M. K. (2002) 'Malcolm Knowles, Informal Adult Education, Self-direction and Andragogy', the encyclopedia of informal education, www.infed.org/thinkers/et-knowl.htm.